The publishing boss is optimistic on what the next-gen will deliver given the time they’ve had to work on it. He says they have something ”really new” that will ”boost the market enormously”.
Creative director Alex Hutchinson described Assassin’s Creed 3’s development as being a part of the ‘dinosaur’ that is triple A game making. Around 600 have worked on it.
”With next gen consoles, it’s going toward bigger games, and yes, we will make less of them,” Yves Guillemot told the Guardian. ”But with free-to-play games, the teams aren’t as big so we can try different things and find subjects that are of interest to consumers.”
Next-gen hardware ”will be more powerful, but we can expect this generation - because they took quite a long time - to actually come with something really new, really interesting that will boost the market enormously”. We’re already seeing what’s likely to come thanks to tech like SmartGlass.
”You have a glimpse at what could happen with SmartGlass from Microsoft,” he continued. ”Microsoft is also moving in to mobile - we can look at what they and Google are doing - those guys are trying to consider the universe we inhabit.”
”Being connected, playing with your friends on any device - consoles can continue to improve that experience and make sure it’s more believable, that you’re immersed in those worlds. The potential is there, with everything that’s been created in the last seven years, to give us new sensations.”
There are still no windows of release for the next-gen hardware, although EA Games’ Frank Gibeau did suggest they were due ”in about a year’s time” and remarked developing games for them was ”spectacular”. Nintendo has announced the official release for their ‘next-gen’ console, the Wii U, as being set for December 8th.
